09/06/2013

4 of the most successful Mobile apps in Kenya.

An increasing number of young Kenyans are developing software, apps and
cellphone-based programmes to help small-scale farmers increase their
agricultural skills and yields. At the most recent PivotEast, East
Africa’s premier mobile start-ups competition and conference, held
in June 2012, three out of five finalists were young entrepreneurs who had
created agrarian apps.
In whole, Kenya
is proving to be a hot ground for mobile innovations, here are some of the five
most well known.

1. M-Farm.
M-Farm is one of many services that have been developed in the last five
years on the back of Kenya’s
lead in information and communications technology (ICT), particularly mobile
phones. With more than 6 400 farmers in its database, farmers couldn’t
have asked for anything better. Three young software developers in their early
to mid-twenties started the company in 2011 to provide market prices to
farmers. Previously, Mwangi, a farmer, sold his maize to brokers that
arrived with trucks and dictated the maize price. He had no way of finding out
the actual market price and often felt cheated. Now, not only does he know how
much he can demand but he is able to come together with other farmers and
command higher prices.

In addition to the price information, M-Farm offers farmers the chance to
sell their crops collectively and to buy their seed, fertilizers and other
inputs together, simply by using their mobile phone or logging on to the M-Farm
website. Each M-Farm agent aggregates the produce of about 100 farmers and
sells it as one lot. The agents also sell seeds, fertiliser and other inputs in
bulk at discount prices. Everyone gains as the farmers earn more for their
crops and the bulk buyers and sellers reduce the number of farms they
visit.

M-Farm collects wholesale market price information on 42 crops in five
markets in Kenya: Nairobi, the capital; Mombasa, on the coast; Kisumu, Eldoret and
Nakuru in the west. In Kenya’s
central Kinangop region, farmers who sold collectively more than doubled their
receipts for produce such as snow peas and sugar snap peas, says M-Farm’s
Wambua.

2.iCow
Another mobile phone service is iCow. One of its products helps beef farmers
track their cows’ gestation periods to increase livestock numbers. Farmers use
an SMS code to register their cows and their insemination date. The service
then sends SMS prompts to the registered farmer on the expected date for
calving, or the best days for new insemination. The service also sends weekly
SMS messages to subscribers with tips on breeding, nutrition, milk production
efficiency, and other best dairy practices.

iCow also posts the location of the nearest veterinarian or artificial
insemination specialist on its website, or sends farmers an SMS with the information.
Through its iCow Soko (market in Swahili) farmers can trade livestock and
livestock by-products on their cellphones.

3. Kilimo Salama
Another web and mobile-based tech programme is Kilimo Salama, which means “safe
farming” in Swahili. Run by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
(SFSA), part of a Swiss agribusiness operating in 90 countries, in partnership
with UAP Insurance of Kenya, and Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile network
operator, it offers crop insurance against drought or excessive rains.
Smallholders purchase cover through local agro-dealers while buying their
seeds, fertiliser and insecticides.

4. M-Pesa​Safaricom's M-Pesa, a mobile phone money transfer system,
has been at the forefront of Kenya’s
agri-technological innovations. About half of Kenya’s estimated 43
million people use M-Pesa. Not only can farmers make and receive payments
for seeds and crops, but financial institutions, such as savings and credit
co-operatives and microfinance schemes, can disburse loans and collect
payments. Almost all financial institutions in Kenya now offer M-Pesa services.
Coupled with the company’s saving and credit service, M-Shwari (cool or calm in
Swahili), M-Pesa is also bringing farmers into the formal banking system.